OPTIMISING RELIABILITY IN DATA CENTRES WORLDWIDE GEA is active in six major market segments and, among others, the global technology leader in air treatment systems. Philip Yorke talked to Gert Bakkeren, the company’s director for product management for the air treatment systems, about GEA’s latest cutting-edge technology and dramatic growth in data centre environmental management.
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EA is a global market leader and one of the world’s most successful technology groups with revenues exceeding €5.7 billion and employing more than 24,000 people worldwide. GEA is listed on the German MDAX stock index and the STOXX® Europe 600 Index. The diverse business activities of the GEA Group span six major areas of operation, ranging from Food Solutions, Farm Technologies and Heat Exchangers, to Mechanical Equipment, Process Engineering and Refrigeration Technologies. The Heat Exchanger segment of the GEA group offers one of the largest portfolios of products in its field worldwide, ranging from advanced plate-heat and air-cooled heat exchangers, to shell and tube products and air filter systems. In addition, the company produces wet cooling towers and dry cooling systems and synthetic fillings, as well as air treatment systems for a huge variety of industrial applications. The air treatment systems
cover occupational space systems, process air-conditioning and process filtration. The company’s motto ‘Engineering for a better world’ epitomises its commitment to providing innovative, sustainable solutions.
Pioneering sustainable technology GEA offers one of the most efficient and complete ranges of products and components for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. As a result, contractors, consultants and architects can rely on one single integrated partner for all their needs. Furthermore, the company’s products are fully compatible and designed to create the comfort desired with the highest economic efficiency. GEA’s latest close-control, MultiDENCO® units, precisely regulate computerroom conditions to +/- 1K and +/- 5 per cent relative humidity. These sophisticated systems are ideal for applications such as data-centres, precision temperature machine rooms, laboratories
and art museums, in fact wherever constant temperatures and relative humidity levels are required. Since all the units operate with extraordinary energy efficiency and under partial-load conditions, they are also perfect for operating as running-redundancy systems. Mr Bakkeren said, “While our primary product range is designed for occupied space, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and remains our biggest market sector, the rapid growth in global data centres represents a new and dynamic area of potential growth for us. Not many are aware that these data centres consume over 2 per cent of the world’s electricity needs with over 3.2 billion kW hours consumed annually. As the clear market leaders in air treatment units in the EMEA regions, and as major players in other world markets, we continue to invest heavily in R&D to stay ahead of the field and to be able to offer our customers a competitive edge with greater efficiency and sustainability.
